Looking Back at 31-1

     Allen County’s opponent was tradition rich Lexington Lafayette, a school that had won the state championship just three years earlier. About the time Lafayette was winning the state title, Jimmy Bazzell was completing his first season as coach of Allen County.

     “I was hired to coach basketball and teach,” Bazzell recalled in a recent interview. “When I stop and think of it now. I could not have stepped into a better opportunity. I was told that Allen County had lost twenty games and won two the year before so I wasn’t looking at any pressure.”

       Bazzell was an Oklahoma native who moved to rural Western Kentucky as a small child. After learning the value of hard work on his grandfather’s farm, the youngest did a stint in the military before completing his education at Western State Teachers College (Western Kentucky University). Right after graduation, the chance came to take over the struggling Allen County program. 

        The turnaround came quickly. In his third season as coach, the Patriots loss by one point in the finals of the region. The game was a learning opportunity for the coach in his mid 20’s. 

     “From that point on, I decided that instead of trying to run and shoot the ball, we wanted to make everybody afraid of us because of our defense,” Bazzell said. “So we really emphasized that and things went pretty good.”

    The 1953 posted a 26-5 record in winning the community’s second regional title in five years, the Scottsville Pointers were the 1948 regional champions. In the state tournament, the Patriots squared off against the 22-6 Generals of Lafayette. Lafayette walked away with a resounding 80-46 win. 

     “The first time we went to the state tournament we were slaughtered,” Bazzell noted. “With it being the first time we went, I found it awful hard to take.”  

      Lafayette dominated the tournament, postings wins over Clay County (77-63), Newport Catholic (71-53) and Paducah (84-53) to take the state championship. Bazzell began to work to return to the big stage. So did Brown.  

     For the young Brown, his trip to Lexington to watch Allen County play in the state tournament left an impression that he would not forget.

     “I dedicated myself to get back to the state tournament when I was in high school,” Brown, now a retired minister recalled recently. “I left there in 1953 and I said I was coming back, I don’t care what it takes, I was motivated.”

      Brown would make it back to the state tournament. For him personally, the trip came be nine years later in 1962. For the Patriots, their return trip came one year later. .

      “We got a taste of it and we kind of liked it,” Bazzell said. . 

     Allen County overcame the 1953 blowout with a sensational 1954 season. Led by senior Tommy Long, the Patriots captured a second consecutive Fifth Region title in 1954 and returned to the tournament. Bourbon Vocational edged the Patriots 58-55 in overtime in the first round ending Allen County’s season at 29-3. 

     Two years later, Bazzell’s 1956 team, led by Luther Kesley, won the school’s third regional title in four years. This time the Patriots won their first round tournament match-up defeating Central City 70-68 in overtime. In the quarter-finals, Bazzell’s Patriots dropped a 69-45 decision to a small mountain school named Carr Creek. A day later, the Creekers reigned as the 1956 state champions. 

     As Bazzell was leading the Patriots to superb seasons, one after another, Brown and his boyhood friends including Wayne Hanes and Wayne Calvert were growing up together on farms in south central Allen County.

     “Wayne Hanes, Tommy Brown and I went to Pleasant Field grade school together and then on to high school,,” recalled Wayne Calvert  “We became friends and have remained friends ever since.”

     By the time the trio reached the middle school years, Feb (Febert) Marr and Kenneth Mays would come into the picture. The five began to play basketball together in the gym and on outside dirt courts. In high school, the chance came for the group to play for Bazzell and enjoy the success the Patriots were having. Calvert liked playing for Bazzell.

    “I thought it was great,” Calvert said. “Guys that played for him were used to him and we had a lot of confidence in him. Whatever he told you to do was best for you and best for the team. People who did not play for him didn’t know him that well but it was different when you got to know him.”

     Brown explained two things he recalled about his coach.

     “Mr. Bazzell never would put you in a position you were not capable of playing,” Brown said, adding “All you really had to do to play for him was give your best.” 

     The Patriots would not return to the state tournament in the late 1950’s or early 1960’s. The teams would win over 20 games but always seemed to come up just a little short. 

      “It was frustrating,” Bazzell recalled, quickly adding, “frustrating but motivating.”

        Bazzell continued to stress defense, believing that his players would do the work themselves to become good shooters and students of the game.

     “Kids want to shoot that ball, they wont to score,” Bazzell explained. “They will do a lot of that on their own. To learn to fly that thing, well you can help them a little, perhaps change their delivery a little bit of course a little bit of change in the way you shoot the ball is a big change. But, w always had good shooting teams.”

      At the start of the 1961-62 season, the pieces were in place for Allen County to make a strong bid for a regional championship. The Patriots had won 56 of their last 61 games. Calvert was a returning All-State selection who already had scored almost 1,400 points in his career at Allen County. He would be joined in the starting line-up by Hanes, Marr, and Mayes, a trio that on any given night could step up and lead the team in scoring. The fifth starter was Brown, the teams’ defensive specialist. 

      “Defense was what I had to do,” Brown recalled. “It was my job.”

     Other team members included seniors Freddy Fykes and Don Johnson and underclassmen Tommy Keen, Dwight Cockrill, Jerry Alderson, Norman Weaver, Richard Towe, Charles Duke, Ricky Carver, Bobby Harwood, and Wendell Fisher. The managers were Bill Holland and Jimmy Marsh. The assistant coach was Charles Napier. (Napier stepped in to serve in the position while assistant coach Tommy Long fulfilled a military commitment. Napier left Allen County shortly after to find success in Hollywood.)

     The squad, especially the seniors, was a close knit squad.

      “We had played together for a long, long time.” explained Hanes. “We were a team that shot the ball well, played great defense, didn’t turn the ball over and played together as a team.” 

     Calvert recalled a team that did not care about who got the headlines.

     “I remember how unselfish everyone was,” Calvert added. “No one cared who scored or who did what as long as we won. We had all played together so long. It was a special team.”  

     Offensively, the team ran a pattern offense.

      “We ran what was called then the Auburn shuffle,” Calvert explained. “It was more of a set pattern offense and a pretty disciplined offense.” 

     The season opened with Allen County routing Hiseville 85-39. The Patriots followed with wins over Park City (64-37), Metcalfe County (60-40) and Glasgow 61-41. Next on the schedule was a 60-42 win over Adair County, a game in which Allen County committed “no floor errors in the first half.”

      The sixth win of the young season was a 71-57 victory against the Alvaton Bluebirds. The Patriots crushed Russellville 71-29, defending regional champion Glasgow Bunche 64-36 and Bristow 75-43 to improve to 9-0 heading into a four team Christmas tournament at Bowling Green.

     Up first was Louisville Seneca, a state quarter-finalist from the previous year and the state’s 6^th ranked team. The Patriots out gunned the Redskins 56-44. Seneca. Featuring future NBA star Wes Unseld, failed to reach the state tournament the following March but would go on to win back-to-back titles in 1963 and 1964.

     In the championship game, Allen County defeated Male, a team ranked among the state top 15 as well. The wins left the Patriots with an 11-0 record. Following the season, Bazzell told The Citizen-Times that the wins over the Louisville powers were one of the season’s high points. 

     “One of the highlights was winning the Bowling Green Invitational,” Bazzell said. 

     Allen County started 1962 with wins over Daviess County (72-39), Park City (58-42), Bowling Green (75-43), Warren County (68-52) and College High (67-47). An 88-34 win against Austin-Tracy was followed by an 89-46 demolishing of Richardsville. The Patriots next victims would be Temple Hill (82-24) and Franklin-Simpson (76-42).

     With the season winding down and the win streak at 20 games, Allen County upended North Warren, state’s eighth ranked team, 49-37. A win over Monticello (66-54) followed before the Patriots set a new school record with their 23^rd consecutive win, an 80-47 win over Caverna. To close the regular season, the Patriots downed High Street 73-45, a win that left the team with a sparkling 24-0 record.

     By now, Allen County was Kentucky’s only unbeaten team headed into the 19^th District tournament at Park City High School. The three-game tournament would be no test as the Patriots rolled past Glasgow 68-36, Hiseville 80-52 and Bunche 66-40. In the opener against Glasgow, Hanes led the way with 17 with Calvert and Marr adding 14 points. Mays led the scoring against Hiseville with a game high 23. Marr added 17 with Hanes recording 11 and Calvert 10. In the championship, Calvert showed his brilliant pumping in 24 points.

     “He was the greatest I’ve ever seen,” Coach Bazzell told The Citizen-Times after the win. “It was impossible to be better.”

     The scene shifted to the regional tournament with 27-0 Allen County considered the favorite to win the Fifth Region crown for the first time since 1956. In the opener, a determined Russellville team almost pulled the “upset of the year”. Using a “zone press and zone defense” Russellville held the Patriots to (at that point) a season low 38 points, almost 30 points below their season’s average. Still, Allen County pulled out the 38-33 win. 

     The regional semi-finals pitted the Patriots against Clinton County. The Bulldogs led 13-12 after the first period, 29-26 at the break and 43-36 heading into the final frame. With 6:20 left in the game, Clinton County led by eight, 43-35, starter Wayne Hanes had fouled out and, according to The Citizen-Times, the “Patriots cheering section was quieter than a graveyard.” What followed was a rally for the ages.

     “Clinton County had led us most of the game,”   Mays recalled. “Then their big boy fouled out. He was the roughest guy I ever played against.” 

     Mays hit a jumper to pull the Patriots to within six. Two free throw by Marr trimmed the lead to four, 43-39, with 5:39 left. The Bulldogs held a 45-42 lead at the 2:58 and was ahead 47-44 until Calvert’s free throws made it a one point game. In the final minutes, Marr buried a jump shot to give the Patriots a 48-47 lead. On their next possession, Marr scored again to up the Allen County lead to three. The guard added another hoop to push the Patriots lead to five. The final would be 58-47, a win coming as the Patriots scored the game’s final 11 points. Marr finished with 18 points, 11 of those coming in the final frame, a period in which Allen County’s rock solid defense held the Bulldogs to four points. 

     In the regional final, Calvert scored 21 points, Mays added 19 and Marr contributed 16 at the Patriots had little trouble defeating Alvaton 69-47.

    “We had played them in the season and won by 14,” Hanes noted. “All the talk was how they were going to get us in the region. We ended up winning by about 20.” 

     After several years of coming close, the Patriots were headed to the state tournament. According to state tournament records, 427 teams had started state tournament play, now sixteen teams remained. Allen County was still undefeated, a perfect 30-0.     

     Needless to say, the hoopla surrounding Allen County’s undefeated season and first trip to the state tournament in six years, spread like wildfire in the community. Mays recalled that almost every Allen County fan made the trip to Louisville.     

     “The town pretty well shut down,” Mays said. “I believe Mr. Altman at Carpenter-Dent drugs brought us all new blazers to go in, if I remember right.”

     For Brown his childhood dream had been realized. He was on his way back to the state tournament, his actual first trip to the state tournament since his journey as a nine year old.

     “I did not get to go in 1954 or 1956 when Allen County went so this was my first trip back,” Brown explained. 

     One thing was different. After Freedom Hall opened in Louisville, the KHSAA began to use both Memorial Coliseum in Lexington and Freedom Hall as sites for the school boy classic. The year 1962 marked the second time the tournament was being played in the spacious 19,000 seat arena at the Kentucky Fair and Exhibition Center. Still, the site did not intimidate the Patriots.

     “It did not matter if we played in the back yard or the barn yard or the gym,” Brown said. “We all knew each other so we just played together. We had a ball and we had fun. We never though about where we were at.” 

      The Patriots, ranked second in the state, opened against 8^th Region champions Henry County. Marr shined in the game scoring a tournament high 35 points on 16-24 shooting from the floor and three of five free throws. After scoring 12 points in the first half, Marr erupted for 23 second half points as the Patriots rolled to a 73-54 win. Calvert added 18 points. Marr, Calvert and Brown each grabbed eight rebounds.

      The Patriots moved into Friday’s final quarterfinal game against Seventh region power St. Xavier. The match-up was similar to a 1961 meeting between the two in the LIT, a game in which the Tigers snapped Allen County’s 20-game win streak. This time, Allen County was 31-0 and St. X was 32-1. 

     With, according to media reports, “most of the crowd” pulling for the Patriots, Allen County grabbed a 13-8 lead after the first stanza. By halftime, the Tigers had trimmed the Patriots lead to three, 21-18. After the break, St. X switched to a zone defense which, according to writers, “nullified the effeteness of Allen County smaller line-up.” Allen County countered by holding the ball for a three minute span to maintain a 23-18 lead midway through the third period. 

      Suddenly, St. X erupted for a 6-0 ruin, a charge that gave the Tigers their first lead of the game. By the end of the third period, St. X led 30-27. A 12-8 final frame carried St. X to the 42-35 win.

     Marr led the Patriots with 14 while Mays added 13. Hanes scored eight points with Calvert, double-teamed the entire game, and was held scoreless. Interest, St. X did not commit a foul in the second half and out scored Allen County 15-4 at the foul line.

      The loss was tough to swallow. Still, Mays recalled that what happened the following day made the loss a little easier to accept.

      “It could have been worse,” Mays said. “But they went on to win the whole thing. At least we lost to the eventual champs. Also two of their players went on to be All-Americans at Army and Dayton. We were playing a very good team.”

     After the season concluded, Coach Bazzell told The Citizen-Times that he was pleased with the accomplishments of his team.

     “We had a lot of success this year,” Bazzell said in a 1962 interview. “I had fine boys to work with. We were happy to be unbeaten going into the state tournament, happy to have made it that far.”

   Several prestigious honors would be forthcoming for Bazzell and his players. After being named runner-up in The Courier-Journal’s Coach of the Year balloting, Bazzell was chosen Coach of the Year by the Kentucky High School Coaches Association. Calvert was named to the Courier-Journal’s All-Sate team for a second consecutive year. Marr was chosen to the All-State Tournament team and All-State third team while Mays received Honorable-Mention All-State. 

    Calvert finished the year as the team’s leading scorer, amassing 530 points for a 16.6 points per game average. For his career at Allen County, Calvert scored 1,914 points, surpassing Luther Kelsey’s previous record of 1,517.Marr averaged 15.9 points per game for the 62 season with Hanes chipping in 12.2 points. Mays added 9.1 points. As a team, the Patriots averaged 67.1 points per game while holding their opponents to 42.2 points. 

     After playing ball together for years, graduation took the senior starters in different directions. Calvert took his game to Vanderbilt, playing four years for the Commodores. Marr played briefly at Mississippi State before returning home. Mays was a two year player at Oklahoma City while Hanes started college at Vanderbilt before finishing his college days playing the game at Delta State.

     For the Allen County basketball program, the 1962 season was just a starting point. With an entire new starting line-up, the Patriots reloaded the next year to make a return trip to the state tournament. Once again, for the fourth time in six trips, Allen County lost to the eventual state champions. Seneca handed Allen County (25-4) a 70-56 defeat in the first round on their way to the 1963 crown.

     Allen County returned to the state tournament in 1964. This team would post wins over Wayland (74-72) and Lexington Dunbar (61-46) before losing in the semi-finals to Breckinridge County (73-62). The Patriots closed the year at 32-7.

     Coach Jimmy Bazzell with a record of 417-89, stepped aside following the 1966 season but the Patriot program never missed a beat. The 1967 squad, coached by former Patriot player Tommy Long and led by Jim McDaniels, went to the state quarter-finals. Three years later, Allen County won the regional crown for a eighth time in 18 years.

     Forty-five years have passed since a senior-laden Allen County Patriot team accomplished a feat that has almost never been repeated. According to KHSAA records, since 1954, Allen County 1962 squad is one of only four teams that have entered the state tournament with an unblemished record. Apollo accomplished the feat in 1978, Mason County was unbeaten in 1982 and Clay County reached the tournament without a loss in 1989. Ironically, all four failed to win the state championship.

     Hanes adds that even today people will talk to him about the 1962 team.

      “I have Scottsville (High School) folks that will come into Napier’s Chevron where I work and wont to talk about that team.” Hanes said.

      Occasionally, members of the team will get together and share memories of the season and their time at Allen County. The players had scrap books filled with pictures and news articles from a season that, except for one game, would have been an accomplishment like none other for Allen County.